Leadership with Allah's Mandate

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Though I hold my opinion that spiritual leadership cannot be compared with worldly leadership. Spiritual leadership is a whole lot broader and deeper, where as worldly leadership is sometimes temporary, task-bound and more like skill management. Leaders manage 'resources' and in the quest to manage the resources well they aim to deal the psychology of the person as well. Whereas spiritual leaders aim to bend hearts with prayer and setting examples and precedents. This fact makes the two leaderships poles apart.

Secondly another major difference is the relationship of the people with the leader. In spiritual leadership the person is like a mentor and much more, Their love for the leader is bound by the Love of Allah. Furthermore it is Allah who ties the hearts of the people together as a community(the fact also being testified by the Holy Quran)

Still it is a fairly good concept to derive leadership techniques from the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) Because of the many shades the shade of 'Leadership' stands out bright!

The organization of the book as per my understanding is based on three stages as categorized by the Author John Adair: The first one being when our Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W.) was a shepherd, Second When he becomes a caravan leader and leads trade caravans , and finally the spiritual leader (we would preferably call it 'Nabuwwat' or Prophet-hood) Along the way the Author also explains the dwellers of the desert and their ways as a community, He tells about the generosity of the Bedouins, interestingly so the people of the desert had leadership but lacked the sense of hierarchy. It was also interesting to note how the Arabs adored camels and according to the author to Arab's eye there was nothing as beautiful as a well-bred female camel!

"It is no accident that the arabic words Jamal (camel) and Jamil (beautiful) come from the same root"

[Excerpt from the book]

I have also read fiction about travels through the desert and found that a desert is a complete phenomenon, it gives you a mindset and a distinct lifestyle. Therefore the author beautifully explains the Arab-Desert relationship:

"An Arab may leave the desert but the desert never leaves an Arab"

Its a very good book, and everyone who is or has been a part of a team would definitely enjoy reading and relating to this book. The role of the Prophet Muhammad has been very interestingly explained and shows how well the author understands the Muslim community and the life of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) The Author is a chair of Strategic Leadership at the UN and has written over 50 books in the area of his research. 

A reluctant read of 'The reluctant fundamentalist'!

I caught the sight of this book while rushing out of a book shop. Having read its title, I reconnected that there has been a movie made by this name perhaps and moreover its slim size tempted me to buy it. Besides its better to read the book than to watch the movie because the movie you create yourself is far much richer and customized. Further got to know that the book has been translated to over 30 languages.

My perception was that this has to be a story of 'Islamization' of a Pakistani American. But to my surprise It was nothing like that.

I must admit that I reluctantly started reading this book feeling little motivation to so. Firstly it was a unique read and first of its kind for me being a monologue. Secondly given the situation in Palestine, Google creating a game called 'bomb Gaza' and America supporting Israel, I loved the fact that an American remains muted throughout the book! an unknown sense of achievement!

Its a good book to read. To know what sort of feelings you go through being at a foreign place with turmoil back home. The whole book is about one evening the Changez has with this mysterious American in a cafe in Lahore. Two things go side by side: one being Changez's interaction with the american in the cafe and secondly the story of his life he narrates to him. He does a lot of hard talk at the cafe possibly leading to his death (not revealed at the end)

Given the story of Changez, a financial analyst by profession, one strongly feels that if someone who passes out of Princeton. And survives in American meritocracy based on his talent and skills often feels ashamed  and low in the 'American' Kingdom (owing to his nationality) then what to mention of the Pakistani workers at the grass root level. How might they feel?

His thoughts moved from a smile to actual sympathy for the victims of 9/11, He narrates:

"I stared at one-- and then other-- of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center collapse. And the I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased"

Erica's (Changez's love) father summed up Pakistan quite well (A pity though that the description is still relevant!):

"Economy's falling apart thouh, no? Corruption, dictatorship, the rich living like princes while everyone else suffers. Solid people don't get me wrong, I like Pakistanis. But the elite has raped that place well and good, right? and fundamentalism, You guys have got some serious problems with fundamentalism"

Two things mentioned about America regarding post 9/11 are worth mentioning:

"I had always thought of America as a nation that looked forward; for the first time I was struck by its determination to look back "

He further says to the American at the cafe:

"As a society you were unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your superiority.And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums... Such an America had to be stopped in the interest not only of the rest of humanity, but also in your own"

At a point someone made him realize that he was much like the janissaries. Janissaries were young christian children captured by ottomans and trained to be soldiers in Muslim army, they were said to be very ferocious and loyal because they ad no memories of back home to retain. This was the point were Changez reverts back to his fundamentals and plans to fly back home to regain his identity.

His disastrous, as they often are, love affair with Erica must also be mentioned, a perfect example of the fact that two incomplete people cannot complete each other, both had their own paths both having their own voids in them, the voids that got bigger when they got closer. Changez confused about his identity and Erica holding on to the loss of his boyfriend Chris. Though there was a lot of emotional connection at Chngez's end but they were not destined to meet. Changez kept on missing Erica to the very end of the book and their story painfully ended!

The story ends with a some thing metallic shining in the American's pocket, now its up to the reader what to make of it!

The Centripetal force in "Remembering God"

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The title of this post has two meanings, one is the centripetal force in this book called "Remembering God"(i.e. This book helps our journey towards the center: Allah) and the centripetal force in the remembrance of God (i.e. dhikar ).

First I would explain the concept of this centripetal force, as explained by Gai Eaton in this book and I so totally loved his way of explaining a simple concept.

He defines the center as God or Allah i.e. our origin and destination. The forces that take take us towards the center(centripetal) are remembrance of Allah and other religious traditions and rituals. On the other hand the forces that take us away from the center(centrifugal) (distract us in other words) are the love of this world, worldly desires and so on.

So the signal I took from this was that we should be having maximum of centripetal force in our lives to lower the impact of other distracting forces. The heart has been explained as a mirror in many saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W.) and time and again we are required to "polish" the mirror. Gai Eaton in this regard says that in today's world just polishing wont do, we need to scrub this mirror: Here is an excerpt:

"Among the complexities of modern life and the forgetfulness which they encourage, it may take more than polishing to offset the dimming of heart's vision. It needs to be well scrubbed if its inherent purity is to be restored and maintained."

Here I would like to add a personal though that every other thing and the love of things adds a layer of insensitivity on our heart, this insensitivity takes us away from Allah and his remembrance. Getting back to his book this is what he has to say regarding wealth and comforts of life:

"There is nothing inherently wrong with the comforts provided by the modern world, better hygiene better drainage, more convenient means of transport but these count for nothing if their sweet embrace encourages us to forget our origin and our end "

"Wealth if gained through legitimate means, is to be relished like any other gift from above but never squandered, the responsibilities which come with it are a heavy burden. Since the rich man is exposed to temptations which do not gather around the poor, he knows that his good fortune is also a test both profound and severe."

Other concepts worth sharing are:

"There is a 'hot' faith and a 'cold' one; the first is passionate, emotional rather than intellectual, while the second dwells in the mind rather than the breast and is a function of intellect. Ideally, these two go together, each supporting the other"

"Why are muslims commanded to pray five times a day, throughout their lives? To many who stand outside the community of Islam, this seems excessive. It is barely adequate. Prayer is the most effective weapon against the centrifugal force, against the tendency with each hour that passes, to slide downwards, away from the light; it is alo the 'polish' which removes rust from the heart. It halts the slide but only temporarily, which is why it has to be constantly repeated. "

Letter to Pakistan!

Recently got the opportunity to read Karen Armstrong's book: "Letter to Pakistan". The author is a historian of world religions. It was a delight reading the book, the writer's grasp over religions is fantastic, and the subject of the letter is worth a read. Though it is a letter to humanity in general but it might have been a matter of gesture to address Pakistan in particular. She often visits Pakistan and also came to the Karachi Literature Festival some years back.

What makes Karen Armstrong a good Historian

The fact that she believes that a historian must empty his/her mind of all prejudices and give up their own opinions in order to analyse things in true perspective. And I have gone through some pages of her book on history of Islam where she has proved herself to be free from all negative prejudices that people often have about Islam. She writes:

"Getting to know one another demands that we 'reform' our prejudices, received ideas, and convictions about their cultures, religions and nations, and this can be difficult, because our opinions about others are often bound up with a sense of our own identity"

She further tells that a well known scholar of comparative religion Wilfred Cantwell Smith would ask his students to celebrate all the festicals and Rituals of muslims while teaching Islam!

The Golden Rule

Karen Armstrong believes., rightly so, that 'compassion' is the base of every religion. And that every religion follows the golden rule in different wordings and I would explain it here in my own words that; Not to inflict upon others what you would not like to be inflicted upon yourself. or always treat others the way you want them to treat you. 

She further says that the faith communities who should be solving the problem are actually a part of the problem and fail to recognize and practice their own beliefs. 

In this book she has explained twelve steps towards a compassionate life, in which is even teaches about how to argue and behave in day to day life. 

Some excerpts

"Compassion is not for the timid. We have to get beyond the selfishness and 'me-first' egotism 'all day and every day' to quote Confucius (Analects 15.23)"

"... were condemned by the Quran for kufr (ingratitude). English translations of the Quran often translate Kafir as unbeliever bu this is misleading. The problem was not with the theology of the kafirun but their arrogant behavior... " 

"...Compassion is greater than mere mercy or pity..." 

"But so opinionated are we these days that people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate"  

"Every human being has the potential to become the living breathing mirror of the divine" 

"The last thing anyone intends is the change of mind. We are extremely talkative but we are not good at listening"

The Alchemist-- Waiting for someone to make it's movie!

This is a symbolic book, fiction basically, which explains the story of a young Shepard an ordinary boy who dares to seek out his 'dream'. Dream can be our ambition, a milestone, a stupid wish; as I often wish of being able to play a musical instrument, or can be merely be our struggle, our fight to live a happy life. In this book it is a dream in literal sense as the boy saw a treasure hidden in Egypt while sleeping. So the book conveys how he moves from uncertainty,  that either his dream his worth pursuing or not, to the conviction that he is gaining so much each day in his struggle. As he is not afraid of taking risks and travelling in quest of the treasure no matter how badly betrayed and struck he became in his journey.

It is very important to have an objective and defined goal in life, like the boy has the treasure as his goal, and discovered many other things and learned skills in the process. The parents of the boy (the central character) wanted to send him to the seminary but he stood up against all odds and told his parents that he wanted to travel, ad had to do so as a Shepard as he did not have enough money. So he had decided to realize his dream of travelling. 

At a point the boy says: "Well usually I learn more from my sheep than from books" This was beautiful which meant that we can look around and learn, we can learn from sheep even!

One can seek out God anywhere and everywhere you need not be a priest or a scholar to find God, so the boy while enjoying the beauty of sunshine comments: "I couldn't have found God in the seminary, he thought as he looked at the sunrise". 

As from the story it seems that the sheep would change their location from place to place with him but it was he who was travelling in the real sense! that's why he commented about his sheep: "...they don't even realize that they're walking a new road each day " He also said that sheep only think of food and water and humans also sometimes just think of food and water! and it shouldn't be so!

When you're about to give up hope!

The boy met the king of Salem who told him the story of a miner who had struggled years in search of an emerald but one day he was about to give up hope, at that stage the king magically became a stone and rolled to the miner's foot. The miner with all his anger threw it towards the mine. It was thrown with such great force that it broke the stone that was hit to reveal the emerald embedded in it! Again symbolism can be seen here, the King became the stone which means that God's help comes into action when we try hard to pursue our desires. 

The world's greatest lie!

Paulo Coelho explains it as the greatest lie that everything that happens cannot be controlled by us but our fate alone. Everyone can enjoy freedom like the 'wind' but we just need to discover it. We are not unable to choose our own destiny, we just need to realize this.

"The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind, and saw that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold him back except himself"!! awesome indeed!!

Self-pity 

I believe self pity is a crime, and came to know that I share the value with the author. As once the boy when he was in tough circumstances concluded: "He realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of the thief or an adventurer in search of his treasure". So the author asks for an attitude shift from 'poor victim' to 'adventurer'! the much needed attitude shift for a happy life! 

Also it is very important to clean ourselves, like in the book a crystal merchant asked the boy to clean the crystals so that he could clean his thoughts!

The desert and the oasis

It is simply worth a read that how the author narrates the story of the boy travelling in the desert and cannot be explained, its a matter of self reading. He marvelously explains the desert and the caravans and connects them with life seamlessly.

Some Excerpts:

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

"Its the possibility of a dream come true that makes life interesting"

"sheep are afraid of strangers but children always seem to be able to play with them without frightening them. I don't know why. I don't know how animals know the age of human beings"

"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how others should lead their lives but none about his or her own"

"I'm like everyone else-- I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does"

"Everything that happens once can never happen again, but anything that happens twice will surely happen the third time"

Some loose ends in my post:

I have resisted the temptation of telling where and how the boy found the treasure for those who feel tempted to read the book! and I would suggest (at the end of the post though) that it is far mush better to read the book instead of reading this post! :P 

This book is definitely a MUST READ!

The 'Paulo Coelho' effect!

Having read four fiction books of Paulo Coelho, and reading the fifth, I've been able to figure out the common message in them all. The books I have read are:

1. The Alchemist [requires a separate blog post]
2. The Pilgrimage
3. The Fifth Mountain
4. By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
5. The Valkyries
6. The devil and Miss Prymm
7. The witch of Portobelo
8. Veronika Decides to Die
9. The Zahir

In addition am currently reading "Aleph". I do not find myself worthy of 'reviewing' a book but i can say with confidence that The Alchemist and 'The Devil and Miss Prymm' are a must read! Moreover if someone chooses not to read "The Pilgrimage" still its chapter 'Personal Vices' is a must must read, I would have recommended it for education curriculum but i am not in charge of that! 

Keeping the broader perspective while reading Paulo's books:

His books have lots to say about Christianity and we must read it with a broader perspective and as Karen Armstrong says (in her book "Letter to Pakistan") that if you explore another faith your belief in your own religion will not be 'diluted' rather it would be strengthened. So we must have a broader perspective and go through all the Christianity related stuff and fit it into our own custom religion settings. Further his books are symbolic. For example in his book The Alchemist sheep are sometimes a symbol for human race sometimes a symbol of the inner instincts of the Shepard and so on depending upon the imagination of the reader.

The concept of 'Fight with God' in one of his books:

In his book "The Fifth Mountain" as far as i gather the central character suffers so much in his life as a Prophet that he faces defeat after defeat but he never gives up, later in the book he is referred to be fighting with God. Which means (as I Infer) that he can even fight with God to reach his objective. This must not be taken in literal sense. As a Prophet he fights with all adversaries the tough and trying circumstances one after another and finally does not even get a glorified victory (though not a literal defeat as well) but he has the peace of mind that he 'tried with all heart' and has won many small battles in the larger war.

The common agenda of his books:

1. You should never give up being a child when it comes to 'dreaming' and till the last moment of your life you should be in pursuit of that dream which he calls the 'good fight' in his book "The Pilgrimage". A lot of emphasis is laid on this (in all of his books) as he asserts that one must be open to taking risks in pursuit of your dream no matter how stupid your dream might feel to others. And that pursuit should continue endlessly in tough circumstances.
2. The fear of death is bad but the fear to live is worse! and even worse if you can't speak your dream just because it is not possible. He thinks that we must have the confidence to speak and seek our dreams/ambitions.
3. Luck favors those who have the courage to fight the 'good fight'.  
4. Faith should be as pure as that of children, and your excitement towards even the smallest joys should be like that of children.
5. One should never hesitate in living, speaking and realizing his dreams, the 'excitement' of one's self should be preserved. 
6. Everyone can perform miracles in our own circle of influence and effect. And life is not just 'fate' but its a web of cause and effect.
7. Anything done for good is the manifestation of love.

Some excerpts to remember:

"A warrior accepts defeat. He does not treat it as a matter of indifference, nor does he transform it into a victory. The pain of defeat is bitter to him; he suffers with indifference and becomes desperate with loneliness. After all this has passed he licks his wounds and begins everything anew. A warrior knows a war is made of many battles; He goes on"

 "The best warrior is the one who transforms an enemy into a friend"

 "A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something and to know how o demand with all his might that which he desires"

          --The Fifth Mountain

"We are always trying to convert people to a belief in our own explanation of the universe. We think the more people there are who believe as we do, the more certain it will be that what we believe if true. But it doesn't work that way at all" 

          (No wonder I've been proving Imran Khan the only solution for Pakistan all the time!)

 "Human beings are the only ones in nature who are aware that they will die... Still being fragile, humans always hide from them the certainty that they will die. The do not see that it is death itself that motivates them to do the best things in their life... they would be even more daring to go much further in their daily conquests because they will have nothing to loose-- for death is inevitable"

          --The Pilgrimage

          "We are our own greatest surprise!" (this is was in the context of our own strength)

          --By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

           "When God wants to make a person insane He grants that person's every wish"

          --The Valkyries

A Leak About WikiLeaks!

When i came to know about this book, it made its way to my must reads! It is always fascinating to read about the details behind big projects and getting to know how things were being done behind the scenes.

Before reading this book i knew nothing about what actually was WikiLeaks (WL) and the ideology behind it. All i knew was the leaks regarding Pakistan and America! But actually this book not only gives an insight about WL but also about the world and the frauds going on.

What is WikiLeaks and how it functions:

Basically its a website that is driven by many volunteers who contribute through the system provided by WL to submit secret documents and donate money as well. WL is a non-profit organization. And they have it hosted at different location through out the world.

The ideology behind WL:

Apparently the underlying ideology is that all functions of governments and its organizations should be transparent and should be brought in knowledge of the people. Its a fight against censorship and a fight to bring true facts in the limelight both.

Audience who might like to read it:

It is a good book to read for all the people lives stuck in IT. Its interesting how the writer takes the reader through his journey at the WL, the book is like a real fiction!. At some places one feels that Julian Assange has been too much criticized and at others you feel that maybe the writer was a bit too much involved and impressed from the guy and had a lot of expectations. He sure was impressed which can be seen in the starting of the book where he explains Julian as someone he was really impressed from his personality and airs. Julian was formerly a hacker known as "Mendax" in the hacker community.

Wikileaks, as reported by this book, is a web application that started its functioning with very little resources and they kept pretending in front of the world that they have a fleet of lawyers and enormous resources and that it was hard to challenge them!

Some notable info from the book:

Some interesting information that i got from this book was about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard who tells people that he is millions of years old and has been travelling from planet to planet to see if everything is OK.The author says that at first people would laugh at him but later on with the magic of his speech he would actually convince the people.

Its also worth a read that how they collaborated their leaks with their sources how they ensured the safety and anonymity of their source and how they collaborated with the media and journalists.

the story of the video called "collateral murder" is captivating and its amazing how they got all the things done, and one thing is for sure that there are a lot of bloopers behind every project but the bloopers behind their project could cost much and they knew this!

One thing that might be out of context but worth mentioning is that Iceland is a country which looks like a  photographic negative!

Attitude takes you places:

Recently from BBC site got to read this news update:

24 Oct 2011 – The whistle-blowing group Wikileaks says it is suspending its publication of classified files due to financial problems.

One nothing noted from Daniel's account of Julian is that the only hurdle that might prevent him from reaching the top could be his attitude, he somehow lacks the guts to work in a team (though he already is an achiever but could go higher).This news update confirmed my views. By the ways the Daniel suggests that Julian didn't like when others were called the co-founders of WL as he himself wanted to be the only "founder" furthermore he fantasized being arrested!

OpenLeaks:

The author has promised at the end of the book about another whistle blower site that has been registered as "OpenLeaks" upon the same foundations and with the same aims as WL.

Last thing that I learned from this book is that WL tries to expose the cruel world we live in!

What Pakistan can learn from China

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The motivation to write this post comes from the book I have read pretty recently called “Chaltay hou to Cheen ko chaliyay” a travelogue by: Ibn-e-Insha In this book he narrates the story of his visit to China as a part of cultural delegation from the government.

China has come a long way, and has struggled a lot to come to the place where it is today. Its an economic power which is expected to help in euro-zone crisis, though the countries are afraid that China might take over their market but as an editorial in a paper read "Beggars are not choosers" hence they have no other option but to seek help from China.

Though there is no comparison between China and Pakistan due to the fact that they are a lot maturer than us as a nation because Pakistan was formed in 1947 and the Long march in China dates back to 1949. This means that almost when Pakistan was formed there was a revolution in China. This fact makes China much more mature as a state and nation.

If we briefly go through the history of the land now called Pakistan, the people have been ruled by invaders sometimes the Aryans sometimes the British. In other words we have always been waiting for someone to come from outside and rule the region! And we can see the glimpses of foreign rule even today!

Fundamental Difference between China and Pakistan, which I have felt while reading the book, is that China’s cultural norms and traditions are aligned with their national goal and this has been a key factor in their success, whereas here in Pakistan we follow the trends and traditions of India, dressing is inspired from the west and our deeds are not accordance with our religion but our nationality is ‘Pakistani’! I feel we are in a state of confusion! This confusion can be overcome by strong leadership which provokes nationalism in the people and earn their commitment and dedication. Unfortunately we don’t lack but are somehow devoid of a strong leadership.

In China, as told by the author, dressing is decent and simple, and everyone seems to be dedicated to his/her work/study/profession. Whereas what we can notice in our country is that universities are becoming fashion houses! And such dedication cannot be seen in everyone but few.

He further says that there were thousands of doctors in China who had left luxurious life in America and Europe and came back to their country to serve their own people. Moreover writers, Doctors and intellectuals have to spend two months per year in villages. I wonder what would be the reaction if such a condition is imposed in our country and I further wonder if any such thing would ever be implemented even if imposed by law!

Health standards are very high in China which is a result of healthy habits in which drinking hot water is top of the list and continues with healthy food.

Though China has a leader behind the revolution but the prosperity has been taken forward by the people at the grass roots and their commitment and dedication, which continued even after mao tsi tung. A leader can only give a vision which needs the power of the people (willing people) to implement the vision. If this vision is empowered by ‘public will’ then the results would be pretty similar to China!